5. Modern History, Ancient, Medieval and Art and Culture.

5. Modern History, Ancient, Medieval and Art and Culture.

Modern History

I have not read Spectrum, even once. That book was too bulky for me to read. I had started with Bipin Chandra, it was useful for mains and getting that overall picture.

For Prelims specifically I used ForumIAS summary book for modern history. It contains everything that is important in Spectrum and that too in 100 odd pages. I read it as many times as I could so that I could get it in my long term memory. For mains I made the thematic notes based on PYQs as I discussed in detail in the audio note above.

Ancient and Medieval

I did read RS Sharma and Satish Chandra very early in my preparation (before 1st attempt) and made notes but my main source here was again coaching handouts (FRC). I included them in my notes along with updation from the test series over 3 years. So in the end I had my notes and I relied upon them for both medieval and ancient.

Art and Culture

I read the important chapters like Architecture, Literature etc from Nitin Singhania and made notes. I again filled the gaps from a booklet provided by Shubham sir at FRC and the information from Test Series solutions. I had also glanced upon Udaan booklet at some point in my preparation.

The ROI in these 3 subjects is not that great, but still you have to do a decent level of preparation so as to not miss out on simple questions like in 2025 Prelims. Again DON'T IGNORE THEM COMPLETELY. Don't make the blunder I made in my first attempt.